Testing whether a mains cable is live

[onedsla]

Hello,
Hoping to run something by those more familiar with home electrics.

I'm doing some basic troubleshooting on a couple of issues in my new house.

In the first case, after routing through several outhouses (where the electrics work), a cable then leads to the garage (where they do not). I'd like to establish to which point electricity is flowing to identify what's broken.

The second is to double check that a particular circuit is off prior to replacing a flood light.

Would something as simple as the below give me a simple 'yes or no' answer, or do I need to invest in something more fancy?

http://www.screwfix.com/p/forge-steel-mains-tester...

[onedsla]

auto1 said:

So maybe best to check live to earth, as well then.

http://www.esc.org.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/docume...

Thanks all - so a voltage indicator multimeter looks like a more suitable tool for the task.